A's Down Royals 13-6

Buddy Bell said something over the weekend that is sure to embarrass a couple of Royals players. But that's a good thing at this point. At least we don't still have a manager who is dances in the shower in the clubhouse and proclaims that we're going to win the division.

"I've seen things here recently I haven't seen since rookie league," Bell said. "Guys not having (sun)glasses, guys not covering first."

He's partially referring to Esteban German, who played center yesterday in the 13-6 loss to Oakland. Nick Swisher hit a line drive at him and German lost the ball in the sun. The ball hit him in the face and he had to leave the game. Afterward he said: "I didn't wear the glasses because the sun was back and forth a lot."

If the sun was back and forth a lot, don't you take your glasses with you just in case?

Bell needs to take some of the responsibility for guys not covering first base. That's what spring training is for. If Bell didn't drill it into their heads to cover first base, then perhaps he wasn't tough enough, or serious enough, or something enough.

Just after his observation that he's seeing things he hasn't seen in rookie ball, he made this rather confusing remark: "That's not an issue of playing hard or whatever, it's just that when the game starts moving too fast, we don't have the ability to slow it down."

Not covering first base isn't an issue of playing hard? Huh? It's a mental lapse, which of course means that a player's mind is wandering, and consequently, he's not playing hard. Mental lapses can simply not be allowed to happen. Physical mistakes are acceptable, but a guy not covering first base because he's thinking about what he's going to do after the game is not.

And for the life of me, I can't figure out what Bell means by the game moving too fast? Does that mean that the Royals made such quick outs in the bottom of the fifth inning that German didn't even have time to grab his glasses? That couldn't be the case because we scored three runs. And German admitted to not bringing them because he didn't think he'd need them. What does that have to do with the speed of the game?

We've always got the ability to slow the game down. The pitching coach can visit the mound. So can the catcher or an infielder. The pitcher can take a little longer between pitches. Or he can step off the rubber.

Anyway, Elarton had his worst outing of the year, giving up 5 ER and 3 BB in 2.1 IP. And Luke Hudson gave up four more runs without recording an out in what I'm hoping is his last outing at the major league level for a while. Sisco got hit hard again, giving up two more runs, and his ERA now stands at 9.00.

We had a few positive notes at the plate. Kerry Robinson, just up from Omaha after Shane Costa went on the DL, went 3-for-5 in the leadoff spot. Emil Brown picked up a couple of hits and so did German. And Mark Teahen hit a three-run home run.

But in the end, the Royals lost for the twelfth straight time at home against the A's. Unfortunately, life doesn't get any easier for the guys in blue. We're on to Detroit, Minnesota, and Chicago this week.

The Royals are sending Runelvys Hernandez (1-0, 1.29) to the mound tonight in Detroit against Jeremy Bonderman (2-2, 5.04).